The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said this Thursday that the sector has "solid pillars" to continue driving the growth of the economy of the country, pointing to the bet on "large investments" as the key to the area's development.

"The country has these solid pillars to withstand the bumps in the crises it has faced," Celso Correia told reporters.

Correia was speaking on the sidelines of the ceremony to announce the results of the Integrated Agrarian Survey.

He said that Mozambique has invested "in a large investment" in the agricultural sector, increasing its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"We are reaping the results of a policy of investment in the agricultural sector in recent years," he noted.

The fact that 66% of Mozambique's population lives off agriculture also justifies that the sector accounts for more than 20% of the gross domestic product (GDP), he added.

The branch of agriculture and related was the most representative (about a quarter) in the economic activity of the first quarter in Mozambique, growing 4.8%, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), released this week.

"The performance of economic activity in Q1 2021 is primarily attributed to the primary sector, which grew by 0.251TP2Q," reads the note on the quarterly national accounts.

The note avers that Mozambique's GDP returned to growth in the first three months of this year, up 0.12% compared to the same period in 2020, after three quarters in decline.